Laboratory under construction

Laboratory under construction

NASA/Marshall biotechnology may get
an
early start on space station

Dec. 10, 1998: While astronauts
assemble and activate the first portion of the International
Space Station, scientists working with NASA's Marshall Space
Flight Center are preparing experiments that will take advantage
of the most extensive space-based laboratory ever devised. And
although the U.S. Laboratory Module won't be attached until the
year 2000, research on board the space station should start by
the end of 1999.

Right: A peek at the future:
Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center take a look inside the
U.S. Laboratory module which was shipped there in November for
final outfitting. It is scheduled for launch in 2000.

Their initial efforts will be modest, but eventually scientists
will have tools that include everything but the kitchen sink.

DCAM, the Diffusion-Controlled
Apparatus for Microgravity,
grows crystals over long periods of time by letting fluids diffuse
through a porous plug that acts like a timer. It has been used
successfully on Mir.

EGN, the Enhanced GN2 Dewar, carries protein samples
up frozen in liquid nitrogen, then lets them crystallize slowly
after they thaw in space. It also has been used successfully
on Mir.

In addition, the Space Product
Development Program will fly several commercial protein crystal
growth experiment units, including a Protein Crystallization
Facility from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

"Most of our current inventory of payloads can fly very
early," said Patton Downey, NASA discipline scientist for
microgravity biotechnology research, a discipline that has had
great success with experiments aboard the Space Shuttle and Russia's
Mir space station.

Head start for biotechnology

Biotechnology is likely to be one of the the first microgravity
science payloads aboard space station.

"We've had requests for payloads that could fly on the
early space station assembly missions before the crew mans the
station," continued Downey. "The space station office
is asking for payloads that can operate unattended for about
two months."

The biotechnology program has several science payloads that
grow protein crystals. These are analyzed on Earth to determine
the molecular structure so scientists can design drug therapies
that target a specific problem with few or no side effects. It's
a bit like safe-cracking at the atomic level.

Most of the protein crystal growth hardware requires little
of the space station's resources and crew support. They only
need to be turned on, and days or months later, turned off. If
crew time is available, some photo documentation may be requested.

Tops on that list are payloads known as EGN and DCAM (above).
Each grows large quantities of crystals by slightly different
techniques.

These experiments will be conducted in an EXPRESS rack designed
to handle experiments with minimal complexity, or in whatever
space is available inside the Unity (Node 1) module, Zarya (the
Russian-built base module), and other elements as they are added.

"After that, the rotating Bioreactor experiments in cell
science will start on one of the utilization flights," Downey
continued. Bioreactor is more complex and will require some crew
attention since the health and growth of the cell clusters inside
must be monitored, and nutrient and waste bags replaced.

The NASA Bioreactor is like a rotating culture dish with a
mini-life support system attached. In it, scientists can culture
cells for long periods of time so they can grow in lifelike assemblies
that should yield clues to how both healthy and cancerous tissues
grow. From that will come new knowledge of how to improve transplants
and to fight cancer.

"What we would fly is much like what we flew on Russia's
Mir," Downey said. "It would be self-contained, with
its own gas supply and other resources."

The Bioreactor is anticipated to use the EXPRESS rack during
its initial experiments, then expand to use a dedicated facility.
Bioreactor is the key hardware element in NASA's cell science
program which is managed at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Extra elbow room

Many of the microgravity experiments
planned for space station got their start - or an important boost
- from early work in the Middeck Glovebox, a tiny enclosure carried
aboard the Space Shuttle and Mir. In the glovebox, astronauts
were able to conduct experiments that are highly promising, but
don't quite warrant a full-fledged facility of their own. They
still need the personal touch.

Right: The new Microgravity Science
Glovebox affords much more working space than the highly successful
gloveboxes used aboard the Shuttle, Spacelab, and Mir.

Aboard space station, a larger, more capable Microgravity
Science Glovebox (MSG) will be installed soon after the Lab module
is launched.

"It's going to be a little like pulling up to one of
the workbenches in the laboratory here," said Charlie Baugher
the MSG project scientist. "It'll have everything but the
kitchen sink."

Services provided by the new glovebox will include electrical
power, air conditioning (to clean the air and cool equipment),
pressurized nitrogen, a vacuum vent, color video, connections
to the space station's own network and - through communications
satellites and the Internet - to scientists at universities and
government labs.

And lots of room. Scientists using the Middeck Glovebox had
to cram experiments into containers about the size of a lunch
pail, and then astronauts had to conduct the experiments in a
volume just a little bigger than the lunch box. The new glovebox
- with a large pull-out enclosure - will have openings 40 cm
(16 in) wide to accommodate experiments as large as a carry-on
bag, and more than enough room for astronauts to work around
the apparatus.

"The beauty of the MSG is that it is so much more powerful
than the original gloveboxes that scientists used and so more
complete science can be done," said Dr. Don Gillies, the
materials science discipline scientist.

On the rack(s)

The MSG will be joined by the larger Materials Science Research
Facility (MSRF) which NASA/Marshall will develop and integrate.

The MSRF is a modular facility comprising three autonomous
Materials Science Research Racks (MSRR) for research in the microgravity
environment on space station. It will house materials processing
furnaces and common systems required to operate the furnaces.
Each research rack will host on-orbit replaceable Experiment
Modules, Module Inserts, investigation-unique apparatus, and
other equipment to conduct a wide variety of scientific investigations.

The research facility will accommodate the planned and evolving
cadre of peer-reviewed science investigations. The facility will
provide the apparatus for satisfying near-term and long-range
materials science discipline goals and objectives to be accomplished
in the U.S. Laboratory.

"It will handle a wide range of research in electronic
crystals and advanced alloys," said Dr. Frank Szofran, the
MSRF project scientist at NASA/Marshall.

The research facility will actually comprise three racks,
each about 1 meter (40 inches) wide. Although they can be replaced
in orbit, NASA envisions keeping the racks in place as long as
possible and exchanging experiment systems within the racks.

MSRR-1, scheduled for launch in October 2002, will host several
modules developed by NASA and the European Space Agency, one
of the major space station partners.

The left side of the rack will be filled with experiments
provided by NASA's Space Product Development Program which is
working with industry to develop commercial applications in space
processing. The Space Product Development Experiment Module (SPD
EM) being developed by the Consortium for Materials Development
in Space at the University of Alabama in Huntsville will accommodate
multiple furnace modules, including both transparent and opaque
furnaces.

Equipment for
first Materials Science Research Rack (MSRR-1)

NASA Quench Module Insert is a furnace capable of reaching 1400oC
(iron melts at 1535oC), with a cold end to establish
a controlled temperature gradient. This insert will also allow
rapid freezing of samples up to 8 mm (1/3 inch) in diameter.
This quenching will enable the history of the solidification
of complex alloys to be maintained for subsequent examination.
The information gained will be applied to foundry practices in
industry.

NASA Diffusion Module Insert is a furnace capable of reaching 1600oC,
and able to maintain a constant temperature along a 100 mm (4
inch) length. Controlled gradients can also be obtained. The
furnace will be used to study the speed and mechanisms by which
electrically active elements can be distributed (diffusion) through
a molten element such as a semiconductor. These data are important
to the electronics industry and real values cannot be obtained
on the ground because of the influence of gravity driven convection.

ESA Low Gradient Furnace
Module Insert is a furnace
for crystal growth capable of reaching 1600oC. Samples
can be translated at slow and precise rates within a temperature
controlled environment. Magnetic field capabilities, both static
and rotating are available to influence the liquid flow and improve
the properties of the crystalline product.

ESA Solidification Quench
Furnace Module Insert
is a furnace designed primarily for metallurgical experiments
capable of reaching 1600oC, and including a quench
capability. While initially designed to be used for ESA experiments,
these latter two insert modules may be made available for NASA
experimenters.

NASA Advanced Pattern Formation
and Coarsening Research Module
will be an on- orbit replacement for the SPD EM. It consists
of a low temperature facility with a precisely controlled bath
for in situ observation of the solidification and growth
of transparent model materials that simulate the behavior of
metals and alloys

The right side will be filled with research equipment provided
by NASA and the European Space Agency, which is also building
its own lab, the Columbus Orbital Facility. NASA and ESA are
each working on two module inserts for the first MSRR. These
will take turns using the rack.

The full range of experiments and their schedules are being
developed by NASA and its partners. They deliberately avoided
locking the experiments in place because science usually moves
at an unpredictable rate, and today's discoveries can redirect
tomorrow's plans. Watch this space. We'll have more on space
station science activities as they develop.